The Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in Katsuyama, Fukui, is built into a hillside, and is designed to look like a dinosaur egg. The whole mountain features dinosaur exhibits and dinosaur-themed activities.

The museum was opened in Katsuyama, a rural township about 600 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, in 2000. The museum features realistic displays that were designed with input from the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada.

Visitors to the museum are greeted by Fukuiraptor, a theropod dinosaur native to Fukui that was described and classified in part by Philip J. Currie of the Tyrrell Museum.

Fukui Prefecture is hard to reach by tourists, and is still waiting to be linked with high-speed rail service to Tokyo. The rural and picturesque prefecture is generally passed over by tourists traveling to the old castle town of Kanazawa to the north. The prefecture has branded itself as Japan's dinosaur ground-zero in order to appeal to tourists, and persuade them to consider stopping in Fukui.

The Fukui train station has itself transformed into a dino hot spot:

Dinosaurs at Fukui Station. Photo by Nevin Thompson.

If you want to explore more of Fukui's dinosaurs, follow the hashtag #福井県立恐竜博物館 on Twitter and Instagram.